MacGregorSailors.com

Last year my furler sock twisted around and damaged my forestay wire at the top. So this year I tied the sock bottom to the anchor roller to prevent that. Sunday night that line twisted and ended up breaking the ring ding on the bow (found broken ring but no clevis) causing demasting and bent mast, bent foil on the furler broken boom and lots of scratches and wire rubs. Thats it for the sock. I'll go for the sacrificial uv strip next if I can figure out how and where to get the mast replaced. Guess I'll be powerboating for awhile.

Those ringdings are an accident waiting to happen. I replaced almost all of mine with stainless cotter pins this year and keep a good supply of the pins on the boat. SS cotter pins were not easy to find either. I found them at Tractor Supply.

I replaced mine with SS key rings. The 1 inch works but if you can get smaller it would be better.

Hope you get her back, ship shape, and locate the hardware priced right. There may be someone in the Forum, near your location, having some of the items needed & reasonably priced.

Sorry to hear of such a misfortunate mishap. Just plain aweful.

WM sells them by the dozen. They are a major improvement over ring dings except they have a limited life span and should be replaced after 2-3 uses. I think fish swallow them so beware of angry sword fish.

I have been advised by a few sail lofts that the swirling jib condum will damage the leech of the sail--not recommended.

Bob

Sorry to hear of your problem. I replaced my ring dings with SS key rings also. That's a good move

I know where Lancaster, NY is cause I grew up in Buffalo and did a LOT of boating on the Niagara River (they caught me once around Grand Island and stopped me from going over The Falls) Where around there do you do your boating ? (I was in Rich Marina for years and once had a long vacation down the Erie Canal out of there)

Rick

Forgive my ignorance. What is a ring ding? I thought it was a tasty treat.

Do you mean these?
Is this what broke?




--Russ

I lost my mast last year also you may want to read my post and consider this: http://macgregorsailors.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9633 (PAGE 2)
After you lose your mast once you may want some redundency

We always tape up the rings with self amagamating tape or insulating tape so they can,t be snagged or broken. Also all rings are mounted on the inboard sides of the boat so they will not snag sails or sheets

Ring Dings are Cotter Rings. For some reason the Mac Manual calls them "Ring Dings".
cotter ring

Major complaint is that they catch on the lines and hands. They do wear out and, even so rarely come off by ?????

I also lost a ringding two years ago on my M26 while sailing about 5 knots with only about 10 degrees heeling on the Potomac. The ringding to the starboard upper shroud stay adjuster worked its way loose and popped onto the deck (which I found after the calamity...). The whole mast twisted from the stepped hinge and went into the drink on the port side. Once the mast confronted the friction of water at 5 knots it immediately folded up 90 degrees at the juncture with the spreader (the weakest point on the mast). Then the end of the boom stabbed a hole into the portside freeboard just a few inches from the transom. All we could do was gather all the lines and motor back to the marina. Obviously the silence was deafening as fellow sailors watched us limp in.

The next day I called Roger M to see if he had a mast I could purchase. He could ship me one, but recommended that I call some of my local distributors to see if they had one available. Unfortunately A1 Sailboats in MD and New Millennium in VA didn't have one. However, Capt Jim from A1 found out that one of his customers lost his M26 in Urbana VA due to Hurricane Ernesto. She freed herself from her dock lines and repeatedly crashed up against his big decorative retaining wall rocks with every wave resulting in a big ugly six foot gouge through her port side hull. It was a sad sight to be able to see his galley through that hole. Capt Jim called Roger to get my phonenumber and then called me to go ahead and contact his forlorned customer. For a condolence fee, he allowed me to scavenge his boat for any useful parts, particularly his mast. I dragged my trailer down to Urbana to load his mast and boom. He later took a chainsaw to the rest of his boat (after the insurers totaled it) and gave me the pulpit and a bunch of other hardware.

I patched the fiberglass gouge in my hull from my boom, raised the recycled mast, and replaced all the ringdings with taped stainless steel pins and was back in business within two weeks. I regret to be able to benefit from someone else’s misery, but perhaps you could call Roger and a few local dealers to see if there is a spare mast laying around or on a condemned M26. Good luck to you!

Holy Smokes


These stories are frightening. I'm replacing all of those rings with stainless pins this weekend.


--Russ

You may want to go with Key rings instead. HArder to get off and on (needs a small screw driver) but they will not work themselves out with lines etc....

Let me ask a stupid question. Can't you just put rigging tape over the ringdings to solve the problem?

Let me ask a stupid question. Can't you just put rigging tape over the ringdings to solve the problem?

Yes

IMHO